To have not taken DD to A&E?

There were lots of children there, and my ds and dd spent many happy hours exploring and playing with them. So far so good, and we actually had a lovely time apart from some truly shocking weather.

One evening, dd (7) found a plastic syphon tube in the woods at the edge of the site and was dared by some other children to drink what turned out to be residual diesel from the tube. She said she spat it out straight away but a small amount went down her throat. She rinsed out her mouth lots of times and we gave her plenty of water to drink. We were in a bit of a panic about what to do, but once we'd all calmed down we thought it would be best to keep a close eye on her and see how she was over the next 1-2 hours.

I kept asking her if she had a sore throat or tummy or felt ill at all, but she seemed absolutely fine (apart from obviously being upset about the whole incident). She slept well and was fine the next day.

Several parents have since said that they would have taken their child straight to A&E if it had happened to them. It's starting to make me think we were negligent parents for not rushing her to hospital.

What would you have done in this situation? We were approx 40 miles from the nearest A&E.

I drank half a bottle of witch hazel once as a kid and my mum didn't take me to A&E but I do rememeber phone calls being made and a doctor (possibly of the toxicology kind) being woken up at the hospital to check

You used your judgement and it's all worked out fine, so you did the right thing. Hope she's ok now

I would have googled what to do if diesel is ingested, as I just did. I discovered that you should not make yourself sick. If sickness, coughing or choking occurs, go to hospital. So, I would have them done exactly what you did - watch my child closely & ask how they were feeling. I certainly don't think you were neglectful at all.

If I was certain it was "just" diesel I'd probably have done the same or called the poisoning line although I wouldn't have raised an eyebrow at another parent doing the a&e route. Things like this are difficult to call imo and tend to get strong opinions.

I'm generally a watch and wait type, so far that's worked well for us.

I use it for the dog too. She was recently bitten by a snake in our garden. A quick google and we knew it wasn't poisonous and she would be fine. Several people couldn't believe I didn't call the vet immediately.

100% would have gone straight to A&E, not in a huge panic or anything, but I would have gone for sure. 7 year olds are not the most accurate storytellers, and yes, you know now what it was but it could have been anything, or mixed with anything.

In a situation like that, it would be better to be safe than sorry IMO. At an absolute minimum I would have called 101/a doctor/poison advice.

I think whatever is was it must have tasted so nasty that it must have just gone in her mouth and back out again, I would have done exactly the same as you did. Wouldn't have gone to A & E, you've got to ask yourself - what would they do there if you took her? If the answer is nothing then you don't need to go! Although I am a nurse so go by the nurses unspoken rules that you would never go to A & E or call an ambulance - never - unless it's life or death

It was a tiny tube with only residual liquid in it, and I'm not certain she actually swallowed any but as you say Etak15, probably spat it straight out and could just taste it. But I do wish we'd at least got some advice from someone at the time.

Speaking from unfortunate experience (food stupidly stored below a leaking fuel can was fed to one of the family children while we were caravanning), she'd have had to consume far more than the tiny amount she did before needing A&E. Lots of water and observation is fine for that much.

Not neglectful at all, you did exactly the right thing. One of the reasons A&Es are collapsing is because people go for the most ridiculous things. I'm always horrified by the number of threads on here and FB where posters are told to rush off to A&E for the most crazy of reasons.